Crossword solver
Type the squares you have filled and get every word that fits. Use _ for a blank square, so _a_e_ finds BAKER, PAPER, WAGER and the rest. No clue needed.
Letters for the squares you know, _ for the ones you do not.
No pattern? Search by length and letters
How to enter a pattern
One character per square, in order, left to right or top to bottom. Case does not matter.
Five squares. Second is A, fourth is E, the rest are open. Returns things like BAKER, HAZEL, PAPER and WAGES.
A five-letter answer you know starts ST. Same as typing ST in the starts-with field with the length set to 5, whichever feels faster.
Six squares ending in ING. Useful when a crossing answer has handed you the tail of a word but nothing at the front.
Seven squares with a repeating vowel. Sparse patterns like this can return hundreds of matches, so add a contains letter to trim the list.
About this solver
A crossword grid gives you letters before it gives you the answer. Once two or three crossing entries are in, the unsolved slot is really a pattern, and the useful question stops being "what does the clue mean" and becomes "what words can even go here". This tool answers the second question. It matches your pattern against a 277,000-word dictionary and lists every word that fits, grouped by length with the longest group first and words in alphabetical order inside each group.
It is deliberately not a clue database. Clue lookups only help when someone has published that exact clue before, and they hand you the answer whole. A pattern search leaves the thinking to you: it shows the candidates, and the clue picks the winner. That tends to keep the puzzle a puzzle.
Everything runs in your browser. Each word length loads once, so the first search takes a moment and every search after it is instant. Working a specific puzzle? We publish spoiler-safe hints for the NYT Mini Crossword and the NYT Crossword every day. Got jumbled letters rather than fixed squares? Use the word unscrambler instead.
Common questions
What do I type for a blank square?
An underscore, _. A question mark or a full stop works too, so _a_e_, ?a?e? and .a.e. all mean the same thing: five letters, with A in slot 2 and E in slot 4.
Does the pattern set the word length?
Yes. The number of characters you type is the number of squares, so c_ _ _ n typed as c___n only returns five-letter answers. If you do not know the length, leave the pattern empty and use the length menu with the contains and excludes fields instead.
Can I search when I know the letters but not where they go?
That is what the second row is for. Pick a length, put the letters you are sure about in contains, and the answer list narrows fast. Add letters you have already ruled out to excludes to cut it further.
Does it solve clues as well as patterns?
No. This is a pattern solver, not a clue database. It answers "what words fit these squares", which is the question you usually have once a few crossing answers are in. For a specific daily puzzle, our NYT Mini Crossword and NYT Crossword pages carry hints and answers.
Which dictionary does it search?
Our own 277,000-word list, covering standard tournament words plus common longer vocabulary. Crossword editors sometimes use proper nouns, abbreviations, and phrases that no plain word list contains, so a pattern with no matches is not always a mistake on your end.
Today's game hints
Spoiler-safe hints and answers for each daily puzzle we cover.